36 ' RòG : ; l / , '"..:"",Ek:,:,}fj;, i;. " ' ) ' V !Q !/I :::.:::.:":::;i LV ,......,. ::r' i .. &t I r : J ' i:i @ , :: '. . {" ;.:.:.:.;...;.....:" ... ,I : ':",',' (:" ,: ' ::=:<t ri!!: '" :, ' iliP l ,', ' :,: : ::: ....:: 1. .. ..... ...... ... .:'.:' '.' ......:. :::..:.. ..:.:.:.: :.' r:: .::: " ",,:::t: ! .... :ø. .." :,,1" f... ':f.: 'i: :=ò< ,, ,, :;...J .#'"' ..,....;,.. ..,..,.,.',' . ./ """ ,',::1 L..;;; ,, :,,;:::;:=iøt,:;, 2:'::) : "::;:;:. ./ ,',# -, , , ",....$::" , ',/i . : t , ',:::"" ',.'<:'::", ,', ' ...;;. ,[ /t"" :::f' .;:::::;:.':.:. ,..;1; m"" r .:...:;:;::.:::;::::........ to:::': ) ,.1 lll "".. .:.:..':.'::::Z:' '$ ""''''w,',','", ", ,,':,,\:::: ,..,,"'.,:. . . ;.::: ' .. & :'wç " :;.::'::': ".: -.:. . DECEMDEI\ 2., 1 9 9 limousine, and so off to the baseball galne, re- turning when a queue of lnore flattering length has formed. "Business , 0 " h won t walt, e says when reproached for spending lnost of his tÍ1ne in the vicinity of Shubert Alley even during the dog days. During intervals of qui- et, Mr. Lee often plays rUlnlny with Peters, his valet. If Harry Kauf- lnan, the ticket-broker upon wholn 1\I1r. Lee relies for cOlnpanion- ship as much as for ad- vice, is available, they change the galne to three-handed pinochle. Peters reads Mr. Lee's personal correspondence as a lnatter of duty and answers it. Mr. J. J. SOlnetÍ1nes refers to Peters as "the Crown Prince. " Mr. Lee's insistence upon running all the Shubert theatres hÎtn- self, even down to the slnallest detail, is a carry-over froln a period when the- atre treasurers and house managers con- sistently robbed their elnployers. Lar- ceny was considered a perquisite of their jobs. The house lnanager would issue " I " 0" d h COlnp llnentarles an t e treasurer would sell them. It was the Shuberts who devised the present method of ac- counting for tickets. Under this systeln, there are separate racks for unsold tick- ets, for the stubs of tickets that have been paid for-known in the trade as "the hardwood"-and for stubs of cOlnpli- lnentaries, or "deadwood." Every seat in the house must be accounted for in one or another of the racks; by deduct- ing unsold seats and deadwood froln the house capacity, the theatre owner knows exactly what should be in the cash drawer. The only subordinate who can issue complÎtnentaries in the whole Shu- bert organization here is the publicity chief, Greneker, and he is exceedingly frugal with them. Most passes to Shubert shows are signed by Mr. Lee hÎtnself. ::vIany Shubert employees have been with the elderly Syracuse boys for a long tÎtne. Mr. Lee has faith in theln but can't get over his distrustful nature. Son1e years ago, he recalls, he was standing in Shubert Alley when a Negro walked up carrying a pair of shoes. The Negro :;:=-::' :,,f \ : "" ",' ,.. , , A , : .. f' ,::;f:':' , "., , . " ""'- f' , ,;,,!::' ':... 0 '" 't ''' ' Yo"" ." 's; f :,x J Wf ,=1 {(i @,""',""",, dt ,',' ,>::, ....'.. ." ;,:',\,j- . I: :;' " ,,":,' '?' ':":': " f4L, r;. ' "U7 ell I don't know , . where he lives and in which the brothers have an interest. "Hellz-a-Poppin" had hardly become a hit last season when Mr. Lee induced Chick Johnson, one of its stars, to take an apartlnent in the Century. Both the Messrs. Shubert lIke to say that they "never learned to play- never had tilne," but Mr. Lee at least gets about a good deal. He says he does so to lnaintain contacts. "Maybe I would like to play," he says plaintively, "'but there is no one around I care to 1 0 h " p ay WJt . Mr.. Lee's office in the Shubert The- atre building is in a turret and there- fore circular-not lnore than twelve feet in dialneter. Into it is squeezed the desk he has used ever since he caIne to New York, a chair, a sofa, a gilt statue of a nYlnph and faun, and an auto- graphed photograph of Colonel Lind- bergh. A short passageway leads from Mr. Lee's office to that of his secre- tary, Jack Morris, which in turn opens into the waiting rOOln, a bleak place with French-gray furniture grouped around a snake plant, and two unchang- o d o d d " " N S k o " lng, lsregar e slgns- 0 lno lng and "No Casting until August." The gray chairs usually are occupied by a queue of petitioners waiting to see Mr. Lee. It is a point of pride with hitn that he never refuses to see anybody who is i " . willing to wait a few hours. The pas- sageway between Mr. Lee's office and his secretary's has an extra door leading directly into the waiting rOOln, but only the experienced understand this door's significance. When Mr. Lee is ready to grant an audience, he pops out at the Morris end of the passageway and beck- ons to the lnan who has advanced to the head of the queue. This hopeful COlnes forward, thinking that Mr. Lee is going to conduct hÎ1n into his private office. Mr. Lee takes him by the arln, leads him . h " I ' I Into t e passageway, says m sorry, can't do anything now," and steers him out through the extra door and into the waiting roo In again. This lnaneuver is known in the trade as the Shubert brush- off. Nothing confuses Mr. Lee more than to be caught without anything to do. "It just happens you catch lne at a titne when everything is very quiet," he will apologize, scratching his head en- ergetically with a paper-cutter. When his elnbarrasslnent becolnes extrelne, he scratches hitnself under the ailnpits and behind the ears. "You should have seen it yesterday. I didn't have a minute to myself." On SUlnlner afternoons when there are only a few persons waiting to see hitn, he has been known to sneak out of his office, go downstairs to his